THE RED HORSE HOTEL
Many times since that first night at Stratford I have rested in the old Red Horse, and nowhere, in a large experience of travel, have I found a more homelike abode. It is a storied dwelling, too; for it was an inn when Shakespeare lived. It is believed to have been known to those old poets Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson; Betterton is said to have lodged in it when he visited Stratford, to glean information about the great dramatist of whose chief characters his age esteemed him the supremely best interpreter; Garrick knew the house when he was in Stratford in 1769 to conduct the Shakespeare Jubilee; and in later years it has harbored scores of renowned persons from every part of the world. Washington Irving, revered as the father of American literature, was a lodger there in 1817, and wrote about it in his companionable “Sketch Book,” and the parlor that he then occupied has ever since borne his name and been embellished with picture and relic commemorative of his visit. The pilgrim loses much benefit and pleasure by carelessly speeding through the Shakespeare Country, as many excursionists do. It is far better to repose in the Red Horse, or some other cozy retreat, and spend many days in rambling about the neighborhood. To the lover of the works of Shakespeare the experience is one of the most profitable that life affords.
NEW PLACE, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
The last residence of Shakespeare. Only the site now remains
From an Old Drawing